Ingram Micro highlights bulging UC line card

Distributor says it sees unified communications as a growth market despite rival Avnet's recent UC exit

Ingram Micro has stressed it is continuing to invest in the unified communications (UC) market a week after rival Avnet shut its UC arm in the UK.

The broadline distributor this week added IP communications infrastructure provider Sangoma to its UC line card, a partnership it said would complement its existing alliances in this area with the likes of ShoreTel, Microsoft Lync, Cisco, OAISYS and Jabra.

Sangoma's NetBorder Lync Express product is designed to deliver fully featured Lync deployments of up to 500 seats.

Ingram Micro said it has created a bundle around the product that includes an on-boarding tool for new resellers wanting to skill up on deploying Lync.

The distributor will also take stock of Sangoma's VoIP media gateway and session border controllers.

Last week, Avnet told resellers it is no longer accepting orders of Avaya, Lifesize and Audiocodes after opting to walk away from UC, a technology it saw as non-core.

Jon Bunyard, director of the Advanced Solutions UK division at Ingram Micro, said the UC market – which is set to be worth $5.6bn (£3.7bn) globally in 2013 according to Radicati Group – is an investment area for the giant US-based wholesaler.

"We consider UC a growing market and will be showcasing our existing vendor ecosystem at this month's Convergence Summit North in Manchester where we look forward to talking to resellers about the opportunities these partnerships represent in the voice space," he said.

Sangoma chief executive Bill Wignall said: "Ingram Micro is highly respected around the globe and exactly the kind of partner Sangoma needs in order to continue our growth and help us expand our leadership in the Lync connectivity market," Wignall added.